Verizon SWOT Analysis 2024: A Well Researched Report

In a thriving industry like tech and telecommunication, many companies have become giants, including Verizon. And now, in this decade, the market has saturated, but Verizon is still rising with innovative products.

In this world of globalization, we are noticing considerable changes in telecommunication services. Even though Verizon has many great strengths and opportunities to capture, they still have some weaknesses they need to overcome and threats to neutralize, which we will discuss in the Verizon swot analysis in detail.

Verizon: Company Overview

Verizon started with the goal of providing smooth communication services and made communication more accessible and accessible for people 23 years back in 2022. And in 2023, they are serving more than 150 million people worldwide. Although the company formed as a merger, it has risen with its core products and services in the market. With more than $136.83 B of revenue and 118K employees in more than 20 countries, the company has a strong presence and excellent customer base.

Besides, their sustainability efforts enabled them to keep a positive image. We will know more in the later sections.

Product & Services of Verizon
Cable television | Landline | Mobile phone | Broadband | Digital television | IPTV | Digital Media | Internet | Telematics

Verizon Competitors
AT&T | T-Mobile | KORE Wireless | Aeris | Semtech | Vodafone | Telit | Rogers

Did You Know?

Verizon has more than one million of global fiber all across the globe, providing internet and all the essential telecommunication services.

Strengths – Verizon SWOT Analysis

Huge Market Share: Even in an industry like com-tech, Verizon holds the top market share regarding subscriber amount. In the second quarter of 2022, the number was 142.8 M in the USA alone, more than 30 M than its competitors. And globally, it has a presence in 25 countries with a massive market share.

Strong R&D Team: The world would fall apart without innovation, and tech companies are in the middle. Being in a competitive market, Verizon has to put effort into innovation continuously, and they have the edge in developing 5G tech. Keeping up with the new-and-new innovations was possible because of their R&D and constant effort.

Stable Finance: One of the primary reasons behind Verizon’s constant growth is its sound finance to keep innovating and expanding. In 2022, the revenue was more than $136 B, and if we look at the reports, this growth was constant, even during the covid year and other economic recessions.

Strategic Acquisitions: In the tech industry, to stay relevant and step ahead of competitors, giant companies acquire small companies with highly effective and efficient products. And Verizon spent more than $50B in the past five years on various acquisitions, such as Yahoo, AllTel, BlueJeans, etc.

Successful Marketing: To display a company or brand as different from its rivals, a company needs to showcase creative branding, and that’s where marketing strategies come in. In the tech industry, Verizon is known for its creative marketing campaigns, and even one of its best moves was to reach through gaming and other relevant platforms.

Weaknesses – Verizon SWOT Analysis

Unbalanced Revenue Portfolio: Even with a huge revenue and customer base, mostly these rely on a single market: the USA. Around 30% of the total revenue and 60% of the customer base is from the USA alone. As it is anticipated that there is an economic recession coming, if it hits hard in the USA, that would be a massive weakness for the company.

Privacy Issues: in 2018, Verizon got caught selling users’ personalized data to third parties for profit without the customers’ constant. And it cost them a tremendous amount of money as well as the reputation of the company. As a result, of course, they pledged to stop this activity for their sack, but the damage was done.

Misleading Ads: In 2020, Verizon published ads saying that they developed the advanced %G network, even when it was not yet developed and not ready to launch. That misleading ad created a bad impression of the company, and customers lost trust, and the company were told to take down the advertisement.

Financial Liabilities: Even though the company’s revenue has constantly increased over the year, so have its assets and liabilities as well. In 2022, the total liabilities increased by 4.12% from the previous year and are now at $286.307B. Besides, their Debt/Equity Ratio is now at 1.52.

Opportunities – Verizon SWOT Analysis

Market Expansion: Verizon relies on the US market and a few other markets, which are its primary source of revenue and customer base. But, with the upcoming recessions, it’s time they start expanding to other developed and developing countries where they can offer better prices and services and grow the market and customer base.

More Beneficial Acquisitions: Verizon has faced many losses in its acquisition programs. As a result, now is the time to acquire companies which align directly with the company’s agenda and help the company to survive and grow calculatingly.

Expand Product Portfolio: Even with an extensive product portfolio, Verizon has a limited number of products and services in its categories compared to its competitors. Besides, they even faced losses because of their pricing until they introduced the unlimited plan. The company should focus more on better services and data plans.

Dynamic Pricing Strategy: The past year, 2022, was a bit tough for Verizon as it lost its network superiority and faced revenue decline because of its pricier plans. To tackle these issues and gain customers, it can introduce dynamic pricing strategies for its customers.

Efficient Sustainability Program: As carbon emissions and other environmental issues have threatened mother nature, and giant companies are trying to help the cause from their positions. Verizon has its “Sustainability Efforts Hub”, which is trying to effectively and efficiently use energy and overall operations.

Threats – Verizon SWOT Analysis

Declining Industry: The telco industry was lucrative and in huge demand in the past decade. However, even though it’s still relevant and plays a considerable role in globalisation, the market is in freefall. The industry has been underperforming curve overall over the past few years by 28% and still declining.

Competitive Market: The Telco industry is very tough with giant competitors like AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, etc. To stay ahead in the game and the market, companies must develop constant innovations and new telco products.

Security Breach: Security breach has been growing over the year, and hackers targeted big companies for the spoils. And as Verizon has the data of millions of users, they were also attacked several times, even in 2022. As a result, the company has faced customer drops and revenues and had to deal with security fixes.

Acquisitions Issues: Verizon has acquired a total number of 37 companies by far. There are many issues with the acquired companies, such as data theft, pricing policies, management issues, etc. And recently, there have been problems with acquiring a company named TracFone.

Recession: In every recession, most industries get hit, and there was a huge downfall in the 2008-2009 recession, and the telco industry was down by 4.3%. And, during the pandemic, it was way down by 6%, and it will be hit badly in the 2023-24 recession if there is one.

[Bonus Infographic] SWOT Analysis of Verizon

Recommendations for Verizon

As the telco industry is declining, it will be difficult for companies to grow and survive in the coming days. And Verizon can do a few things to stay in the market for the long term.

• It would be foolish not to start expanding to other potential markets to grab the opportunity to bring new customers, grow the business and make a strong foothold.
• Introducing new products and services to stay relevant and retain customers will pay off in the long term.
• With economic issues, such as recessions, they should be more dynamic with pricing.
• They should be more careful about security breaches and information leaks as the market is already in a bad position, and gaining customers’ trust is not more crucial than ever.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Final Words on Verizon SWOT Analysis

Verizon has become a giant part of the tech-com industry with constant innovation and growth. They were able to keep themselves relevant with strategic acquisitions and successful marketing campaigns.

But with globalization and all, there are now modern problems such as declining industry security breaches, etc. But the constant effort to stay in the market made the company survive all those years. Even during the pandemic and recession, their revenue has increased and will continue to do so in the coming years.

References

• Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Verizon Communications, Inc. Wikipedia.
• 5G Labs – the cutting edge of 5G Technology. (n.d.). Verizon.
• Verizon ends 2021 with strong wireless service revenue and EPS growth. (2022, January 25). Verizon.
• Taylor, P. (2023, January 18). Verizon Communications’ expenditure on acquisitions from 2016 to 2021, by type. Statista.
• How Verizon built buzz around their Big Game presence and broke through to gamers on Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter Marketing.
• Singleton, M. (2018, June 19). Verizon will stop selling real-time location data to third-party brokers. The Verge.
• Porter, J. (2020, July 16). Verizon told to stop making misleading 5G claims by ads watchdog. The Verge.
• Verizon profit declines as pricier plans result in subscriber loss. (2022, October 21). CNBC.
• Verizon Sustainability Efforts Hub. (n.d.). Verizon.
• Fitri, A. (2022, December 13). Is the telecoms industry really in freefall? Tech Monitor.
• Fowler, B. (2023, January 21). T-Mobile Gets Hacked Again: Is the Un-Carrier Un-Safe? CNET.
• Alleven, M. (2021, March 3). Concerns grow over Verizon’s acquisition of TracFone. Fierce Wireless.
• De Renesse, R. (2022, July 13). What a global recession would mean for telcos. Omdia.